The Patriot Post® · The Demos' Temporary DACA Defeat and Retreat

“Public opinion sets bounds to every government, and is the real sovereign in every free one.” —James Madison (1791)

Last week, in a comprehensive analysis of the Demos’ DACA deceit regarding illegal immigration, I provided clear evidence of their pandering political duplicity — in their own words.

For example, during Barack Obama’s tenure, recall the strong condemnation of illegal immigrants by then-Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who declared: “People who enter the U.S. without our permission are illegal aliens, and illegal aliens should not be treated the same as people who enter the U.S. legally. … When we use phrases like ‘undocumented workers,’ we convey to the American people that their government is not serious about combatting illegal immigration. … I think it is illegal and wrong.”

In 2013, when Republicans were holding up government funding over Obama’s so-called “Affordable Care Act,” Schumer declared, “No matter how strongly one feels about an issue, you shouldn’t hold millions of people hostage.”

How about in the last presidential campaign? Then-candidate Hillary Clinton had this to say about DACA: “We have to send a clear message — just because your child gets across the border, that doesn’t mean your child gets to stay. We don’t want to send a message that is contrary to our laws.”

Right.

So what changed?

A few years ago, when the Democrats were still feigning concern for their blue-collar and union worker constituencies, whose jobs and wages have been deflated by unchecked illegal immigration, they talked tough about illegal aliens. But their proposals were all smoke and mirrors. They routinely made fake political plays for Latino and Hispanic voters while pursuing policies that protected their traditional constituencies.

Now, however, as its lower- and middle-income voter blocs are hemorrhaging, the Democrat Party is turning its back on those traditionally supportive groups and opening a socialist voter pipeline to flood America with its most promising future constituency — Latinos. And labor union fat cats, whose member rolls have also been hemorrhaging, see these largely unskilled and low-wage immigrants as their future dues payers.

As clear evidence of that disingenuous shift, former Hillary Clinton campaign aide Jennifer Palmieri let the truth slip out earlier this month when she warned in a memo that the Democrats’ fight for DACA “is also a critical component of the Democratic Party’s future electoral success.”

It’s almost as if Democrats believe their constituents are clueless as to what their dear leaders are saying. And, sadly, that’s a pretty fair and accurate description.

So what would be the best way to disable the Trump administration’s immigration agenda to ensure the Democrats’ “future electoral success”? Why, a government shutdown over DACA, of course, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck “The Negotiator” Schumer!

Schumer believed that Democrats could successfully blame a shutdown on Donald Trump and the Republicans.

But that calculation was wrong, and Republicans hung the shutdown like a noose around Schumer’s neck as Trump wisely stayed on the sidelines.

By midday Monday, Schumer was in full retreat, claiming, “After several discussions, offers, counter-offers, the Republican leader and I have come to an arrangement … to reopen the government, to continue negotiating a global agreement, with the commitment that, if an agreement isn’t reached by February 8, the Senate will immediately proceed to consideration of legislation dealing with DACA.”

Democrats voted to support the GOP’s temporary funding resolution through February 8th, the next opportunity for a Schumer shutdown. Notably, last week House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) declared, “The GOP short-term resolution is like giving you a bowl of doggie doo, put a cherry on top, call it a chocolate sundae.” (Too easy to parody that remark.)

Of the temporary reprieve, Trump responded, “As I have always said, once the government is funded my administration will work toward solving the problem of very unfair illegal immigration. We will make a long-term deal on immigration if, and only if, it is good for our country.”

The Washington Post lamented, “Democrats Lost Their Nerve In The Shutdown Battle,” noting, “What’s clear is that on the very first day of the shutdown on which the federal government was actually supposed to be open, Democrats pretty quickly took a deal that was well shy of what they were demanding.”

WaPo’s congressional reporter Erica Werner said in disgust, “We now await Democrats’ spin about how this isn’t a cave.”

The Associated Press led with “Shutdown deal puts spotlight on Dem leader,” noting, “For two days, Schumer … succeeded in keeping his party unified. But as the shutdown moved into its third day, the New York Democrat and his party buckled as several Democrats backed a deal to end the shutdown.”

CNN’s Chris Cuomo said Democrats got “spooked and the GOP got a boost. They got a deal to make a deal. Maybe.”

And CNN political analyst Matt Viser angrily complained, “Democrats have managed to accede to Republican demands, demoralize their energized base, give a disengaged president a win, and look like they held a meaningless three day government shutdown — all at once.”

The Nation’s George Zornick: “If this was always Senate Democrats’ exit strategy — cave in exchange for nothing — they should have just provided the 8 votes on Friday.”

And Politico headlined, “Democrats Get Rolled In Shutdown Standoff,” and noted, “Democrats lost the shutdown war. That much was obvious when they voted to re-open the government with little to show for it. They had vowed for weeks not to back any funding bill without a bipartisan agreement to protect so-called Dreamers. But … Democrats folded.”

Politico’s congressional reporter Rachael Bade complained, “Democrats got nothing in this. Can someone please remind me why this happened to begin with? Wasn’t it about a DACA deal? There is no DACA deal.”

Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which funds the campaigns of “bold progressives” from the “Elizabeth Warren wing of the Democratic Party,” slammed Democrats: “Today’s cave by Senate Democrats — led by weak-kneed, right-of-center Democrats — is why people don’t believe the Democratic Party stands for anything. These weak Democrats hurt the party brand for everyone and make it harder to elect Democrats everywhere in 2018.”

The uber-leftist MoveOn.org called it a “Terrible Shutdown Deal,” noting, “This is a bad, outrageous deal. Trump and Republicans in Congress stood with their anti-immigrant nativist base, and too many Democrats backed down … and failed to fight for their values.” (It’s always laughable when leftists lecture about “values.”)

It was a bad day for Chuck Schumer and his Democrats. How bad? So bad that MSNBC’s case study in Trump Derangement Syndrome, Joy Reid, declared, “There is nothing so predictable as media spin in favor of Republicans.”

Yes, she really did.

According to the final tally by National Review’s Deroy Murdock, “97 percent of House Democrats and 92 percent of Senate Democrats voted to close the federal government, stop paying American troops, block money to the U.S. Border Patrol, and deny medical care to some 9 million children (yes, the children!) enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The House Republicans’ wide majority overwhelmed Democrats’ votes. But Senate Republicans’ wafer-thin majority, and the 60-vote approval threshold, empowered Democrats to sandbag this measure and — as they desired — shut down the federal government.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) summed it up: “What we learned is that the American people don’t want to have the government shut down for illegal immigration. … That’s significantly strengthened our hand going into these immigration negotiations to have a responsible bill for the DACA population while also controlling for those side effects, building a wall, securing our border and ending chain migration. The Democrats badly overplayed their hand here.”

The conservative House Republican Study Committee (formerly headed by Vice President Mike Pence) has endorsed the “Securing America’s Future Act,” and is calling on Speaker Paul Ryan for a floor vote on the measure. The legislation is authored by Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Mike McCaul (R-TX), Raul Labrador (R-ID) and Martha McSally (R-AZ), and it adds requirements to those proposed by Trump, including mandatory E-Verify, sanctions against sanctuary cities, safer asylum requirements and cuts to the current legal immigration numbers. While the House proposal will require some modifications to obtain the requisite 218 votes, it’s a good start.

Despite what seems like a resounding Democrat defeat, Republicans had better get ready for the rebound. The Demo DACA retreat is only temporary. Democrats miscalculated public support for another government shutdown, as they did their ability to shift blame to Republicans, but they’re now calculating a comeback.

Not 24 hours after conceding, Schumer is now trying to recover by playing hardball. According to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Schumer has now withdrawn an offer to appropriate billions for the southern border wall. The number two (pun intended) Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin (D-IL), confirmed that Schumer “called the White House yesterday and said it’s over.”

It’s over until it’s not!

Trump responded, “Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA.” Trump, the negotiator, has Schumer and his Democrats boxed in on DACA, having offered them more than they asked for ahead of the next shutdown showdown deadline, 05 March.

Moving forward, expect Democrat leaders to convert the anger generated by their DACA retreat into a unified protest front ahead of President Trump’s State of the Union next week — in part to divert attention from his administration’s exceptional first-year record.

We hope, for his part, Trump will keep reminding Democrats and American citizens that the net cost of illegal aliens to taxpayers is more than $116 billion annually, much of that for “free” health care, while American veterans wait in line for basic health services.

While the cost to American taxpayers is high, and the cost to American victims of violent crime committed by illegal aliens is incalculable, the real issue is whether we are a nation defined by laws and borders or a nation defined by Democrat political agendas.

Bottom line: In order to retake Congress this year, Democrats are going to have to campaign for the “rights” of illegal aliens over those of American citizens, while campaigning against “peace and prosperity.”